To miss the excitement of 90's shops

[JunoLunar]

Warning: pointless nostalgia
I love shopping but it's such a dull experience these days.
Maybe it was because I was younger and had such little disposable income. I miss shops selling you a 'lifestyle' as i really only get that feeling in IKEA now.
In particular I miss:
Body shop: the little shaped sponges of oranges, lemons, strawberries and the coordinating sprays, bubble baths and those little iridescent balls that went in the bath.
Disney shop: DD was obsessed with Encanto at Christmas and I had to trawl through what they had on so many different online shops. It would be amazing to have a Disney shop to see all the different merchandise and let her choose a few things. I remember the excitement of the lion king coming out and seeing the big displays with all the cuddly toys. I chose a pencil case with different compartments which hid rubbers, pens etc, think it had a calculator too (high tech!)
The Pier: totally up my hippie mums street. Used to have one of those CD players where you could listen to a snippet of rain music, whale music, wolves howling! Did anyone buy those cds? Also selling us the dream of a coloured glass bowl of water with floating tea lights which definitely didn't end up either getting spilt or left to go mouldy on the book shelf. I remember how grown up I felt buying a wooden cat which came in a stars and moon print paper bag.
Waterstones: I still love it now but loved it even more when there was no Amazon or kindles and you had to proper commit to a book to pay £8 for the hard cover.
HMV: I bought the single of 'Smooth' by Santana on tape and the long haired guy behind the till said 'nice choice'. I was sure I could write for Kerrang magazine based on that comment alone.
Also Debenhams in Bristol had in interactive forest with talking trees and a fake drive in cinema with little cars you could sit in and watch Disney films. It was basically ok for your parents to dump you there whilst they shopped. I vaguely remember going there but we never bought anything as it was ' too dear'.

@BodgertheJogger

I loved the body shop in the 90s and as Anita Roddick intended, I hate it now. I remember certain Mothercares having interactive fixtures such as a talking tree with a face and the toys that could be played with on the shop floor (possibly ELC). ELC had a stay and play thing that I used to love when they used to bring all the toys down.

Anita nicked the idea for BS from two women in California who came up with the concept of the BS we all loved. It was AR who started the MLM business and sold to L’Oreal - I think that’s when BS lost it and even though it belongs to another company now (who also own Avon) it will never recover. Sadly Neal’s yard went down the MLM route too which is the kiss of death ethics wise.

Are there any shops like The Pier now? I used to love that place in the 90s. Got a set of those little ceramic spice drawers set in wood and would love another set.

I miss going shopping, spending all day on a Saturday trying on bundles of clothes and carefully choosing one or two items to spend my hard earned cash on (often to wear out that night). There used to be so many affordable women's clothes shops. I was distraught when oasis and warehouse went under. The relaunched online versions just aren't the same. I feel sorry for teens and young women of today - the choices are so limited and samey wherever you go.

I think they were a chain , but in Glasgow there was a massive What Every Woman Wants ( later named What Everyone Wants )
Very much a Like it? Buy It !

Won't be in next time .

I got some really nice ( on my student budget) clothes in there .
It was like a 1980s Primark

Does anyone remember Bonie Maronie shoes? They were flat like ballet pumps but with really really pointed toes. The cool girls at school all had them (but probably have mis-shapened feet now)

"I did not have posters of him on my wall (because I thought he was gross and didn’t understand why everyone fancied this model just because Just Seventeen told us that we should) but I remember him and am 100% here for the story."

Ok, @Andoffwego, I'm not sure if it's a good story if you didn't fancy him, but here you go...

I'm an actor by profession, and a few years ago I was in a show which co-starrred a very nice (and very good-looking - I appreciate he wasn't your type, so you'll have to take my word for it that he's aged very well) man named Malcolm.

I knew he looks familiar, but couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until the show was up and running and I heard another cast member jokingly refer to him as "Mr Just Seventeen" that it clicked...

At which point I blurted out: "oh my god, you're THAT Malcolm! Wow, I loved you so much, I had posters of you ALL OVER MY ROOM! I used to practice snogging on them!"

I'm not sure who was more embarrassed, him, or me once my brain caught up with my mouth. Suffice to say the rest of the run was a tad awkward.

@ImInStealthMode

Very location specific, but Grin in the Corn Exchange in Leeds. It took up 3 or 4 units and was a cornucopia of hippy nick-nacks (beaded curtains, dream-catchers, incense burners), curiously juxtaposed with those Bang on the Door 'groovy chick' style merchandise and inflatable chairs.

I suppose if a lot of your market is 14 year old girls looking for dream-catchers, might as well serve them with a pencil case too

I had forgotten about Grin! I used to spend hours in there and in the rest of the Corn Exchange. I used to travel over to Leeds at least once a month for a proper shopping trip. It was such a vibrant city to shop in. I moved away from Yorkshire years ago and I can’t imagine that it’s anywhere near as good now.

Biba Kensington high street was a magical place. Nothing has ever matched up to it.

Shopping was an event - the metro centre was like going on holiday - bowling, cinema, indoor roller coaster and too many shops to count.

Topshop on a Saturday was nuts
I always felt so posh going to fenwicks in Newcastle - even to the loos

Teenagers are less independent now and are supervised more. They expect to be driven everywhere. They've also grown up with the internet and smart phones etc. We didn't have the option of internet shopping back in the day and so it simply wasn't an option for us. If we needed (or wanted) something, we had to go to a physical shop to buy it.

I think there was also the issue that there wasn’t really anywhere else to go - coffee shops didn’t exist in the way they do now, my town had a tea shop (which we wouldn’t have been seen dead in!) and the bigger town nearby did have coffee shops but they were the sort of place adults went. I should imagine a gaggle of teenagers coming in would not have been welcome, even if we’d wanted to go into such dull and square places. The likes of Starbucks, Costa etc were years away.

So we went shopping when we went out with friends. Unless you were doing a sport or it was warm enough to sit outside, there wasn’t much of an alternative option!

@3peassuit

Biba Kensington high street was a magical place. Nothing has ever matched up to it.

It certainly was. Those beautiful suede boots in unusual colours - I loved the dusty pink. And the make up, nothing has ever suited me as much as the yellow foundation, you looked as if you were bathed in candlelight.

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal. I think I know who you mean and he is still handsome 💓

There were more independent shops and boutiques, rents and rates have seen those off. I liked quirky little shops.

Anyone recall a lingerie shop called Contessa thinking it was a franchise.

I like Rituals because it kind of sells a ‘nice smelling’ lifestyle— not so many in UK but weve got tons in Copenhagen.

Bit of a tangent but the poster up thread who mentioned Just Seventeen has reminded me of teen girl magazines of days gone by, J17, Sugar, Bliss etc. My DD is of an age now where she's outgrown the children's comics and there just doesn't seem to be anything out there for her age any more which is a bit sad, I suppose its yet another thing which the Internet has killed off.

I was born in the late 90s so remember nothing much apart from a distant memory of eating toasted teacakes in the local department store's cafe. This thread has sort of made me feel nostalgic for something I didn't experience. I do however buy & covet 90s Monsoon ballgowns secondhand online - the Twilight range.

Bonie Maronie shoes yes! I thought I was so cool when I got some, happy memories!

Same @NinaDefoe!!! 😭.

Absolutely agree OP. I loved it when Miss Selfridge started make up and nail varnish and they used to have the massive bright display in the middle of their shops.

Don't know whether anyone grew up in Leeds in the 90's and remembers what the Corn Exchange was like, loads of independents I was obsessed with record bags from 'Ark' who also ran a club night, I was made up when I got one. I can also remember going to Dawn Stretton for my parting dresses.

And Shelly's and Dolcis for all the sparkly shoes and Chippie trainers - I wasn't allowed the silver ones only the black patent ones and it still sticks in my craw 25 years later.

I think retailers these days are on some strange death mission.

YES @Andoffwego that was mine and a friends favourite place as tweens used to go with pur spends and get our mirrored waistcoats, scarves to wear as headbands and layering beads!! The Corn Exchange was amazing before they did it out!

I have some rattan bedroom furniture from the Pier, wardrobe and 2 chest of drawers, bought for my first flat. It still looks amazing and even if I won the lottery it will move with me to my new amazing place. I also loved International for small home furnishings. I remember buying a really funky and heavy cultery set from somewhere, maybe one of these, and we could by a couple of forks etc at a time as we could afford it

I loved C&A, as does DD as it is still a thing in Europe. When we go to Budapest and other parts of Hungary we always look for the nearest branch!

We had the best shop ever in my town, it was down Smelly Alley. Strawberry Fields it was called. Sold all types of jewellery including shag bands. Also drug paraphernalia like grinders etc. It was famous really, had such a good vibe and was so well loved...I really miss it!

@OhWhyNot

Gonnagetgoing

Kingston Upon Thames.

The Next it was so different to any other shop. I bought a pair of penny loafers with my birthday money.

There was a Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge (in Elly’s), a Bernie Inn, Dayvilles Ice Cream, Bejams, Safeway, Polka Theatre

And I have fond memories of you friends parents toy shop in the village (I remember buying the plastic stuff on a tube you could blow up into a ballon)

@OhWhyNot - the toy shop was owned by Peter Greenhill and he handmade the wooden toys! We have or had some.

No idea about Kingston as I’m sure I didn’t go there… but Wimbledon definitely and driving through eg Tooting Broadway where a friends dad bought us both striped sleeveless ra ra striped dresses in the late 70s at Chelsea Girl there.

@47Mayorhumdinger19, I moved to leeds in 2000 and DD has grown up here. The Corn Exchange and the city centre is a totally different place now. Saying that, now teen DD will happily spend the day in the city centre with friends or they get the train to York/ Sheffield etc. There are worst places! Her and the friends independence started with dropping them off at White Rose for a few hours- apart from Sainsbury not sure what is left there now!

One of the main areas I went to in 80s was Che Guavra (sp?) on Streatham high street where you had Stirling Cooper but also Benetton and other shops. There was a shop like Athena next to the ABC cinema where we’d get Athena posters, postcards, cuddly toys etc and then drift to the Odeon end where Che Guavra and McDonakds was. There was a hippyish shop called Atraxa?) in the same street as The Wholemeal cafe and there was another hippyish clothes shop in Leigham Court Road which landmark was a sunflower with a woman I think painted on the wall outside it.

We went to Croydon to buy clothes in boutiques, Bay Trading, Benetton, Now and one of the first Body Shops. The Warehouse in the Whitgift Centre had great clothes in early 90s I bought my lilac and red check Capri pants, a fluffy lilac Pearl cardigan and a lilac and separate red check skiff dresses.

Yes to C&A, What She Wants, little woods etc. We just seemed to treat shopping as a social activity and I saved up and bought less!

McDonald’s and other fast food chains were new but not that new, but we did like Dunkin Donuts, deep pan pizza company etc.

Ahhh memories - good for good now

This thread is making me so sad! Maybe sad isn't the right word but definitely nostalgic. Shopping now is a total ballache and I pine for the days of the mid to late 90s and even early 2000s when shopping (whether or not you actually spent any money) was something to look forward to on a weekend, an activity you did with your friends.

I grew up in NI and we didn't have a lot of the big chains where I lived like River Island and Miss Selfridge till much later, but we did have Body Shop, Bay Trading, Top Shop (which had communal changing rooms and sold second hand Levi's) and Tammy. So many Saturdays spent smelling things and trying things on.